Winter Garden

Boy am I loving my winter garden. Leaves are my flowers, mostly, because the deer around here eat almost anything that blooms, and the leaves are leafing!

First, some traditional friends:

First camellia of the season (Debutante):

and the other camellia whose name I do not know is finally producing nicely:

These succulents have been really satisfying this summer and fall. Also thriving is the one that my friends hate that smells like burning tires (not shown):

What's driving me wild right now is the variety of colors and textures:

And red-on-red:

For some reason the maples that are in the front of the house somehow turn colors and lose their leaves at different times even though they are presumably the same kind of maple. At the upper left in the photo below is the maple that turns color last. The leaves on the lower branches are still green. And hidden behind it is the Bloodgood maple that we moved from the driveway to a more shaded spot earlier this year. This is how it's thanking us. It is still caged until it gets bigger and is deer proof:

Which brings me to my last photos from the morning. I am eagerly following the progress of the baby fruit on the citrus tree that has never fruited in the 11 years we've had it. I went into the back yard and as soon as I opened the door, there was loud stirring in the bushes and a juvenile deer scrambled to his feet. He had been sleeping in a tiny patch of leaves on the cement, in between the two statues of Thompson's gazelles (George and Emelda). Weirdest thing. This is George, with the patch of leaves behind him.

And a closeup of the bed the deer had made in the leaves, with Emelda's flank on the right:

Go figure.